VFW honors missing soldiers
Published 9:30 pm Monday, September 22, 2025
Veterans and community members gathered Friday to commemorate National POW/MIA Recognition Day and honor those who were prisoners of war and soldiers who remain missing in action.
In a speech given at VFW Post 10221, Cmdr. Chuck Collins said on this day of recognition, Americans are asked to pause and reflect on the sacrifices made by military men and women who are imprisoned and unaccounted for as a result of their military service. Individuals and businesses may also fly POW/MIA flags as part of observation of the day, rallies and ceremonies that are held nationwide “to honor those U.S. service members who have yet to return home and to the families they have left behind without closure as to the fate of their loved ones.”
“The VFW remains committed to achieving a full accountability of all U.S. servicepeople from all war areas who are either in prison or listed as missing in action,” Collins said. “Those who have served and those currently serving … are ever mindful that the sweetness and endurance of peace has always been tainted by the bitterness of personal sacrifice. We are compelled to never forget that while we enjoy our daily pleasures, there are others that have endured and still may be enduring the agonies of pain and imprisonment.”
He brought the audience’s attention to a small table nestled in a corner of the VFW canteen, set up “in a place of dignity and honor” to symbolize the service members who have yet to return home.
“We join together to pay humble tribute to them and to bear witness to their continued absence,” he said.
Collins explained that the table’s small size symbolizes one prisoner, alone against his or her oppressors. The white tablecloth is a symbol of the service member’s pure intentions to “respond to their country at the time they were called.”
A single rose in a vase placed upon the table signifies the blood shed by the missing service members and serves as a reminder of their family and friends who “keep faith while awaiting their return.” A red ribbon wrapped around the vase represents “the unyielding determination for proper accountability of our comrades who are not among us.”
A small plate holds a sliced lemon and a sprinkle of salt, which respectively represent missing service members’ “bitter fate” and the “countless fallen tears of their families and loved ones.”
“The glass is inverted — they cannot toast with us at this time. The chair is empty — they are not here to be with us,” Collins said. “The candle is lit, and so is the hope which lives in our hearts to illuminate their way home, away from their captors, to the open arms of a grateful nation.”
